The Limerick Diocesan Synod, which officially opened in St John’s Cathedral, Limerick on 3 April, will be a time for reigniting hope and new beginnings for the Church across the Diocese, Bishop Brendan Leahy stated yesterday.

In his homily at the Opening Mass of the Diocesan Synod, Bishop Leahy said that the Synod is the first in Ireland in half a century, the first in Limerick in 80 years and the first ever with such a major participation of lay women and men. It wants to build Christ’s Church with the renewed ardour and fire of holiness.

The gathering also saw Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown present the official blessing of Pope Francis to the Diocese of Limerick to support the first Synod.

Bishop Leahy said that that in building the Church there needs first to be “an acknowledgement in humility of its defects”. The Synod, Bishop Leahy said, will be an opportunity to take both the good and the bad of our Church life and “do our part to repair and remedy, to improve things, and thereby radiate Christ in our communities and our families, in our schools and social projects, among our young people and in our liturgy.”

Bishop Leahy said that the Synod is a chance for the whole Diocese to take significant steps to “help us begin together again in mission”.

“Many in our day will say they are only hanging on in faith and in the Church by their fingertips. But, just as in the case of the ‘doubting Thomas’ in today’s Gospel , our difficulties in belief and those of our contemporaries can often be the archway under which we pass to enter into a new experience of God present among us precisely when we least expect him.”